Polk County Observer (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
1,051 issues from 1903 to 1917, published in Monmouth, Oregon, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Polk County Observer was first published in Monmouth, Oregon, in the fall of 1888. The original owners, Charles Doughty and George Snyder, moved the operation to Dallas, Oregon, shortly thereafter. Snyder left the paper a few months later in January 1889, his place being filled by Carey Hayter, who would also buy out Doughty and remain until 1910. Between 1910 and 1924, several owners and editors shuffled through Dallas working on the Observer. In 1924, Earle Richardson, who had worked on the Elgin Recorder in Eastern Oregon, took over publication. In 1927, he consolidated the paper with the Polk County Itemizer, forming the Polk County Itemizer-Observer.
The Observer was engaged in politics, supporting Republican candidates and policies. An 1894 article covered the Republican state convention, expressing confidence in the selection of candidates and the potential for victory in upcoming elections. The article observed, “The people who have watched the effect of the democratic policy upon the industrial and financial condition of the country everywhere are anxious to return to republican rule and prosperity.” According to the Observer, the Democratic Party could only express a “forlorn hope” for success in Oregon.
The paper was generally supportive of women’s suffrage and lamented the fact that women could not actually vote to support the measure in Oregon, which was denied by votes of the state’s male electorate in 1883, 1900, 1908, and 1910. During the 1908…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Monmouth, Oregon, United States
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress